Published the results of surveillance around the clock for penguins

In honor of World Day of penguins (25 April 2015) crowdsourcing research project Pinguin Watch posted 500,000 new photos to classify volunteers.

Since last year, about 100 colonies of Gentoo penguins and other species in different regions of Antarctica shot clock hidden camera steady.



Now online has 1,814,381 picture of penguins in their natural habitat. By the way, if you are treated with 10 photos with the penguins from the archive (you need to count the number of birds in the photo), you can win a dream trip - a visit to this small intelligent beings to where they live. 11 days expedition to Antarctica, what could be better? The contest will run from April 25 to May 25.

Pinguin Watch project launched last year Oxford scientists to study the life of penguins. Counting penguin helps to understand how penguins survive the winter, as they are affected by climate and human activities, why some colonies are reduced in size, while others thrive.



More than a million photos already classified allowed to make certain observations, which has been open to scholars. Here are the facts secret life of penguins revealed annual clock surveillance.

1. Penguins use their dark droppings to break the ice and have sex.

2. The birds like white plovers surprisingly often come and live in colonies of penguins in winter. It was assumed that all they migrate to South America.



With 500,000 new photos scientists hope to attract the attention of a large number of volunteers to tag photos and make new discoveries. They specifically emphasize: Soon comes the mating season, and then the camera will take pictures every minute! (Instead of the standard 8-96 per day).



This year we will learn not only about sex, but how often penguins feed their nestlings, and how much time fathers spend away from their families, producing food. All these interesting facts that are difficult to obtain by conventional "invasive" methods of observation (GPS-sensors, etc..) Without using crowdsourcing.







Source: geektimes.ru/post/249648/